11 'Mabhouh killers’ on Interpol list

Organization urges police to focus on pictures in deciding who to detain.

Suspected al-Mabhouh assassins 311.
(photo credit:Associated Press)

Interpol has put 11 people suspected by Dubai authorities of co-coordinating and committing the assassination of Hamas terror chief Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on its most-wanted list.

Interpol said in a statement Thursday it had reason to believe that the suspects linked to the assassination had stolen the identities of real people, and that the Red Notices specify that “the names used were aliases used to commit murder.”

The organization said it had officially made public the photos and the names fraudulently used on the passports “in order to limit the ability of accused murderers from traveling freely using the same false passports.”

The publication of the Red Notices came at the request of Dubai police and Interpol ’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in Abu Dhabi, with whom the Interpol General Secretariat and Command and Co-ordination Center in Lyon are working closely, together with NCBs in other member countries, to determine the true identities of the assassins.“Based on close co-operation among our member countries and on information provided by innocent citizens, it is becoming clear that those who carefully planned and carried out the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh most likely used forged or fake European passports of innocent citizens whose identities were stolen,” said Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

Noble urged police to focus on the pictures of the suspects published in the Interpol Red Notice in deciding who to detain, question and apprehend.

“Since the names on the passports discovered as part of the Dubai Police's investigation are most likely the names of real and innocent people whose identities have been stolen, Interpol does not believe that we know the true identities of these wanted persons. We have therefore included the names fraudulently used because if any of the persons pictured on the Interpol Red Notice were found in possession of fraudulently altered or counterfeit passports, then such possession would be evidence of guilt for a variety of crimes,” he said. “The decision by Dubai and Interpol to share all existing available information with the international law enforcement community can only help shed light on those who perpetrated and masterminded the attack. In the process it will also help to establish the innocence of the ordinary citizens and even of countries whose identities were stolen and fraudulently used.”

Dubai authorities have said that British, French, German and Irish passports were used in the operation to kill Mabhouh.

A
number of the individuals whose names were used have been reported as
saying their identities were stolen and that they were not involved.
Authorities in Britain, France, Germany and Ireland for their part say
they believe the passports from their countries used by the alleged
killers were fraudulently altered.